holiday saturday fund & self-employed

[freelancer]

I'm in my early thirties and have been in the ranks of the self-employed for a couple of years now. I've largely been ducking out of check-ups and dental appointments for the last year but I'm suddenly conscious of my own mortality. I have basic BUPA coverage but I'm beginning to wonder whether I should take out a supplementary policy with HSF, seeing as I'm out of the PRSI loop.
Any other single self-employed people out there in the same boat? Would I just be guilty of over-insuring myself?

 

[Brendan Burgess]

I don't know much about the HSF and I can't find its website.

But the whole idea of insurance is that you pay a small premium in case of a large claim. So you pay a few hundred euro a year in house insurance in case your house burns down.

Insuring small expenditure like routine dental or medical treatment makes little sense. The size of any claim is likely to be low. So you are better off just keeping your premiums and spending them on medical treatment.

However, if you are someone who needs constant medical treatment because you have an existing illness, or because you are older, or because you smoke, then VHI is good value for you as you are being subsidised by the young healthy people who won't be claiming very often.